Samuel Johnson Quotes

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Quotes About Samuel Johnson

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Falsehoods of convenience or vanity, falsehoods from which no evil immediately visible ensues, except the general degradation of human testimony, are very lightly uttered, and once uttered are sullenly supported. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
He made two or three peculiar observations; as when shewn the botanical garden, 'Is not EVERY garden a botanical garden? ~ James Boswell
Samuel Johnson quotes by James Boswell
The truth is that the spectators are always in their senses, and know, from the first act to the last, that the stage is only a stage, and that the players are only players. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content. No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring: no man can, at the same time, fill his cup from the source and from the mouth of the Nile. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
No man is much regarded by the rest of the world. He that considers how little he dwells upon the condition of others, will learn how little the attention of others is attracted by himself. While we see multitudes passing before us, of whom perhaps not one appears to deserve our notice or excites our sympathy, we should remember, that we likewise are lost in the same throng, that the eye which happens to glance upon us is turned in a moment on him that follows us, and that the utmost which we can reasonably hope or fear is to fill a vacant hour with prattle, and be forgotten. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
In all political regulations, good cannot be complete, it can only be predominant. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Like an image in a dream the world is troubled by love, hatred, and other poisons. So long as the dream lasts, the image appears to be real; but on awaking it vanishes. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Among other pleasing errors of young minds is the opinion of their own importance. He that has not yet remarked, how little attention his contemporaries can spare from themselves, conceives all eyes turned upon himself, and imagines everyone that approaches him to be an enemy or a follower, an admirer or a spy. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
A blaze first pleases and then tires the sight. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
stoodAloof from streets, encompass'd with a wood.Dryden.2. Applied to persons, it often insinuates caution and circumspection. Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel,And make the cowards stand aloof at bay.Shak.Henry VI. Going northwards, aloof, as long as they had any doubt of being pursued, at last when they were out of reach, they turned and crossed the ocean to Spain.Bacon. The king would not, by any means, enter the city, until he had aloof seen the cross set up upon the greater tower of Granada, whereby it became Christian ground.Bacon'sHen. VII. Two pots stood by a river, one of brass, the other of clay. The water carried them away; the earthen vessel kept aloof from t'other.L'Estrange'sFables. The strong may fight aloof; Ancaeus try'dHis force too ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
ANT (ANT) n.s.[aemett, Sax. which Junius imagines, not without probability, to have been first contracted to aemt, and then softened to ant.]An emmet; a pismire. A small insect that lives in great numbers together in hillocks. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
We are perpetually moralists, but we are geometricians only by chance. Our intercourse with intellectual nature is necessary; our speculations upon matter are voluntary, and at leisure. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
But the gradual growth of our own wickedness, endeared by interest, and palliated by all the artifices of self-deceit, gives us time to form distinctions in our own favour, and reason by degrees submits to absurdity, as the eye is in time accommodated to darkness. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
A man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man, because he has both enjoyments. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
The animadversions of critics are commonly such as may easily provoke the sedatest writer to some quickness of resentment and asperity of reply. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
The faults of a man loved or honoured sometimes steal secretly and imperceptibly upon the wise and virtuous, but by injudicious fondness or thoughtless vanity are adopted with design. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Pendantry is the unseasonable ostentation of learning. It may be discovered either in the choice of a subject or in the manner d treating it. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Deceit and falsehood, whatever conveniences they may for a time promise or produce, are, in the sum of life, obstacles to happiness. Those who profit by the cheat distrust the deceiver; and the act by which kindness was sought puts an end to confidence. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Men hate more steadily than they love. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
No man sympathizes with the sorrows of vanity. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Of all kinds of credulity, the most obstinate is that of party-spirit; of men, who, being numbered, they know not why, in any party, resign the use of their own eyes and ears, and resolve to believe nothing that does not favor those whom they profess to follow. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
He who attempts to do all will waste his life in doing little. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Misery is caused for the most part, not by a heavy crush of disaster, but by the corrosion of less visible evils, which canker enjoyment, and undermine security. The visit of an invader is necessarily rare, but domestic animosities allow no cessation. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
I do find London exciting. Much as I hate to agree with that tedious old git Samuel Johnson, and despite the pompous imbecility of his famous remark about when a man is tired of London he is tired of life ... I can't dispute it. ~ Bill Bryson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Bill Bryson
Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
In the motive lies the good or ill. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Some have little power to do good, and have likewise little strength to resist evil. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
We have less reason to be surprised or offended when we find others differ from us in opinions because we very often differ from ourselves. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense of their labor, than when you give money merely in charity. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience; in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expense of all the common comforts of life: I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestic tenderness. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Politeness is fictitious benevolence. Depend upon it, the want of it never fails to produce something disagreeable to one or other. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Riches exclude only one inconvenience,
that is, poverty. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
There are people whom one should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropped by. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Idleness and timidity often despair without being overcome, and forbear attempts for fear of being defeated; and we may promote the invigoration of faint endeavors, by showing what has already been performed. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Nature has given woman so much power that the law cannot afford to give her more. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Whoever desires, for his writings or himself, what none can reasonably contemn, the favour of mankind, must add grace to strength, and make his thoughts agreeable as well as useful. Many complain of neglect who never tried to attract regard. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Those who are in the power of evil habits must conquer them as they can; and conquered they must be, or neither wisdom nor happiness can be attained: but those who are not yet subject to their influence may, by timely caution, preserve their freedom; ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him great. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
The violence of war admits no distinction; the lance, that is lifted at guilt and power, will sometimes fall on innocence and gentleness. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
The dependant who cultivates delicacy in himself very little consults his own tranquillity. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
To bring back riches from the East you must bring riches with you. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
No one ever became great by imitation. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Pleasure, in itself harmless, may become mischievous, by endearing to us a state which we know to be transient and probatory, and withdrawing our thoughts from that of which every hour brings us nearer to the beginning, and of which no length of time will bring us to the end. Mortification is not virtuous in itself, nor has any other use, but that it disengages us from the allurements of sense. In the state of future perfection, to which we all aspire, there will be pleasure without danger, and security without restraint. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
The coquette has companions, indeed, but no lovers,
for love is respectful and timorous; and where among her followers will she find a husband? ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Riches, perhaps, do not so often produce crimes as incite accusers. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
If we consider the manner in which those who assume the office of directing the conduct of others execute their undertaking, it will not be very wonderful that their labours, however zealous or affectionate, are frequently useless. For what is the advice that is commonly given? A few general maxims, enforced with vehemence, and inculcated with importunity, but failing for want of particular reference and immediate application. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
There is no book so poor that it would not be a prodigy if wholly made by a single man. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
You despise a man for avarice; but you do not hate him. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
I have already enjoyed too much; give me something to desire. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
It is unpleasing to represent our affairs to our own disadvantage; yet it is necessary to shew the evils which we desire to be removed. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Towering is the confidence of twenty-one. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
That friendship may be at once fond and lasting, there must not only be equal virtue on each part, but virtue of the same kind; not only the same end must be proposed, but the same means must be approved by both. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
It very seldom happens to a man that his business is his pleasure. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Politeness is one of those advantages which we never estimate rightly but by the inconvenience of its loss. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
The round of a passionate man's life is in contracting debts in his passion, which his virtue obliges him to pay. He spends his time in outrage and acknowledgment, injury and reparation. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
He who endeavors to please must appear pleased. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Ah! Sir, a boy's being flogged is not so severe as a man's having the hiss of the world against him. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
It is the quality of patriotism to be jealous and watchful, to observe all secret machinations, and to see publick dangers at a distance. The true lover of his country is ready to communicate his fears, and to sound the alarm, whenever he perceives the approach of mischief. But he sounds no alarm, when there is no enemy; he never terrifies his countrymen till he is terrified himself. The patriotism, therefore, may be justly doubted of him, who professes to be disturbed by incredibilities ... ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Say "no" only when it really matters. Wear a bright red shirt with bright orange shorts? Sure. Put water in the toy tea set? Okay. Sleep with your head at the foot of the bed? Fine. Samuel Johnson said, "All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle. ~ Gretchen Rubin
Samuel Johnson quotes by Gretchen Rubin
He that outlives a wife whom he has long loved, sees himself disjoined from the only mind that has the same hopes, and fears, and interest; from the only companion with whom he has shared much good and evil; and with whom he could set his mind at liberty, to retrace the past or anticipate the future. The continuity of being is lacerated; the settled course of sentiment and action is stopped; and life stands suspended and motionless. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Labor, if it were not necessary for existence, would be indispensable for the happiness of man. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
To buried merit rise the tardy bust. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Misery and shame are nearly allied. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
To wipe all tears from off all faces is a task too hard for mortals; but to alleviate misfortunes is often within the most limited power: yet the opportunities which every day affords of relieving the most wretched of human beings are overlooked and neglected with equal disregard of policy and goodness. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Such is the constitution of man that labour may be styled its own reward; nor will any external incitements be requisite, if it be considered how much happiness is gained, and how much misery escaped, by frequent and violent agitation of the body. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
His most frequent ailment was the headache which he used to relieve by inhaling the steam of coffee. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
The desires of man increase with his acquisitions. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Corneille is to Shakespeare as a clipped hedge is to a forest. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
A man who is good enough to go to heaven is not good enough to be a clergyman. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
In his comic scenes, Shakespeare seems to produce, without labor, what no labor can improve. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Friends are often chosen for similitude of manners, and therefore each palliates the other's failings because they are his own. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Life is barren enough surely with all her trappings; let us be therefore cautious of how we strip her. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
ABRUPT, adj. Sudden, without ceremony, like the arrival of a cannon- shot and the departure of the soldier whose interests are most affected by it. Dr. Samuel Johnson beautifully said of another author's ideas that they were concatenated without abruption. ~ Ambrose Bierce
Samuel Johnson quotes by Ambrose Bierce
We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Each change of many-colour'd life he drew, Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly become corrupt. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Our senses, our appetites, and our passions, are our lawful and faithful guides, in most things that relate solely to this life; and, therefore, by the hourly necessity of consulting them, we gradually sink into an implicit submission, and habitual confidence. Every act of compliance with their motions facilitates a second compliance, every new step towards depravity is made with less reluctance than the former, and thus the descent to life merely sensual is perpetually accelerated. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
It is not uncommon to charge the difference between promise and performance, between profession and reality, upon deep design and studied deceit; but the truth is, that there is very little hypocrisy in the world. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Consider what importance to society the chastity of women is. Upon that all the property in the world depends. We hang a thief for stealing a sheep; but the unchastity of a woman transfers sheep and farm and all from the right owner. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
Oratory is the power of beating down your adversary's arguments and putting better in their place. ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
"I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others." ~ Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson quotes by Samuel Johnson
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